In the Heart
by indijoe
Summary: [AU] Four friends - Xanthe, Rick, Victor and Vincent - look forward to the release of "Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance." However, their connection to the series might be deeper than they first thought. Strange events in the four days before the release of "KH3D" inspire Xanthe and her friends to reconsider what their reality entails. [5 chapters at completion. No pairing.]
1. Chapter 1

"Oh, damn, I'm going to be late!"

The black-haired girl grabbed a page of notes with "XANTHE" scribbled in all-caps on the name line and stuffed it into her backpack. She lifted it onto her shoulders carelessly as she sprinted for the door, nearly missing her bus. Thankfully, she was right on time. Xanthe clambered on, nearly tripping and falling on the floor. She managed to compose herself, though, and swung herself into the vacant seat next to her friend Rick, a young man with messy dark blond hair and deep blue eyes.

"That was really graceful," Rick teased, clapping sarcastically. "I'm impressed."

"Dude, shut up!" she ordered, pushing his shoulder and laughing. "Seriously though, KH3D is gonna come out in, like, four days. I mean, if you don't count today? Seriously though. Seriously."

He smiled back at her and replied, "I know, oh my god. I'm way too ready for this. Way too ready."

"Yeah, they left a lot of questions in KH2 and Recoded."

"Oh, I totally agree. At least the games all go in order, though. Imagine how confusing it'd be if, like, Birth By Sleep came out in the middle or something!" Rick laughed. "Nothing would make any sense."

Xanthe shook her head and giggled in kind. "What if, indeed! The entire series would be mess. Hey, did you finish the history homework?"

Rick sighed deeply. "…I forgot…"

"Rick, you scatterbrain, oh my god. I wouldn't even be surprised if you forgot ME at this point, dude."

"Like that'd ever happen!"

Xanthe whipped her backpack onto her lap and pulled out her worn history textbook. "Don't you have history second hour or something? You could do it now." She passed the book to him with a smile. It was hefty, and she remembered with annoyance that its binding was beginning to crumble. "Open it carefully, though, 'cause the pages might fall out or something."

"Can do," said Rick, gingerly opening the book to a later page. He grabbed his notebook and began to answer questions slowly and deliberately.

Rick was concentrating very hard, and it bored Xanthe to no end. 'It's no use to try a conversation when he's concentrating. I might as well text somebody,' she thought. She grabbed her cellphone and pressed the 'contacts' button, selecting "Victor" from the screen.

"Going 2 school today?" she typed.

The spring morning was clear and provided an interesting view from the bus window. Xanthe reached up and lowered the top half, allowing cool, moist air to enter the bus. It filled the small area in which she was sitting with a satisfying chill. Her phone beeped and vibrated, nearly sliding off the seat next to her. She caught it just in time and viewed Victor's reply.

"not rly feelin it lol. yolo"

She rolled her eyes and smiled faintly. That message didn't even dignify a decent response. Victor really needed to get it together. The bus rolled to a gentle stop in front of Xanthe's school, an elegant brick-faced building with a sense of power and authority. Rick handed her the borrowed history textbook and stood while she quickly crammed it into her backpack and slung it on as fast as she could. They accompanied each other onto the sidewalk. The air had a pleasing, dewy fragrance, and the sunlit courtyard gave the scene a feeling of almost unreal serenity. The promise of a hard day's work in her courses almost spoiled the perfection of the morning for Xanthe, but she enjoyed it nonetheless.

"Really nice morning, huh?" she asked Rick.

"Yeah, it's great. Thanks for letting me borrow your history book," he replied. "It was really a lifesaver."

"No problem!"

They entered the building together with the other unremarkable students, blending into the blur of white and navy blue uniforms required at the school. As they entered, a boy with reddish-blond hair in a similar style to Rick's rushed up to them ecstatically.

"Guys! Did you hear? KH3D is gonna come out in three days!" he exclaimed breathlessly.

"I know. Vincent, like, seriously though. I'm really excited too, but wow. Tone it down or you'll have a heart attack!" Xanthe teased.

"No kidding," said Rick. "Dude, I thought you were gonna fall over dead or something."

Vincent's face reddened a little at his friends' comments. "Sorry, guys," he laughed. "I'm just so excited. I mean, the timing is perfect! We all just finished Recoded the other day."

The bell rang, cutting the conversation short. "I'm gonna go to my locker now. Seeya later!" said Xanthe. She climbed the stairs leading to the second floor and walked to locker 2486, which was near the end of the hallway. It clattered open when she unlocked it, and she quickly unpacked her things, then rushed to chemistry. Once again, she was lucky – right on time, in fact. Practically on the dot, even. She breathed a sigh of relief.

The teacher, a rather nondescript man, started the lesson by writing the electron configuration for carbon. He began to explain the concept of electron hybridization, but Xanthe became lost in a completely unrelated dilemma. Though she'd spent almost an entire year in the class, and the other students' faces were all familiar, she could not remember any of their names. Not a single one stood out to her as easily identifiable, and, in fact, she could not even bring herself to recall even the first letters of their names. It was a simply baffling conundrum. Why hadn't she noticed this earlier?

The boy sitting next to her didn't ring any bells, and she even remembered the time he got in-house suspension for shining a laser pointer in her eye. She puzzled over it for quite some time before finally dismissing it as a strange 'glitch' in her memory. It does happen, after all.

* * *

The weather had warmed up considerably by the time the school day was over. Xanthe leisurely made her way to a small café a few blocks from the school. The building had an open but cozy interior, and a pleasantly furnished outdoor area shaded by two rather young trees. Rick and Vincent were already waiting for her.

"Sorry I'm late, guys."

"It's pretty much in your DNA. Don't even sweat it," said Rick. "Hey, I got you some ice cream."

"Thanks!" She took it from him and fished around in her pocket for money.

He raised his hand to stop her. "You don't have to pay me back, it's no biggie."

"At least Victor didn't get it for you," Vincent chipped in suddenly. "He'd probably ask you to pay interest."

"No kidding!" Xanthe laughed. "He's, uh…a unique guy, to say the least."

"Yeah, that's true," said Rick, smiling. "But I really wish he was here. It's just kinda quiet without him around."

"Normally he comes over when he skips school. I wonder what the deal is?" Xanthe said.

Vincent shook his head in mild disapproval. "He needs to get his act together. I bet he said something like 'Not feeling the whole school thing today. Just gonna skip. Yolo swag!'"

Xanthe giggled so hard she shrieked a little bit, but composed herself enough to say, "That's almost EXACTLY what he said! Right down to the yolo thing, except he didn't say 'yolo swag.' Which is good, 'cause I'd be a little worried if he did."

"Seriously? Man, he's so predictable," Vincent laughed. He took a bite of his ice cream and continued, "I bet he's gonna come to school tomorrow and be like, 'Guys, guys, I already saw screenshots from KH3D!' As if the company'd ACTUALLY let part of the game leak. He tries to be so cool."

The friends shared a quick laugh at Victor's expense, but Rick stopped and frowned.

"Don't you think it's kind of weird that he didn't come, though? What if something happened?" he asked, wringing his hands together. "I mean, he skips school all the time, but he'd never skip this unless it was something really serious."

"He seemed fine when I texted him," said Xanthe waveringly. "I mean, he even…hey, how about I call him? Would that help?"

"I wanna do it. Here, can I borrow your phone?" Rick asked, though she was already handing it to him. Vincent was about to comment, but Rick had already called Victor, so it'd be useless to try. After a few moments, Rick handed the phone back to Xanthe.

"He didn't answer," Rick said. "This really isn't good. I think it might be serious."

"Aw, c'mon. Don't sweat it!" Xanthe replied, taking another bite of her ice cream. "I bet he's got a sports thing or something. He'd never miss sports, y'know."

"I guess you're right…"said Rick.

"She's got a point. I mean, it could be rowing or whatever it is. Don't they have some big thing coming up?" Vincent suggested in an attempt to cheer up Rick. Rick's only reply was a slow shake of the head and a worrisome sigh.

Xanthe checked the time on her phone, and promptly stood up. "Well, it's no use. I gotta go anyway. Just…try not to worry so much, OK, Rick?"  
With that, she finished the last bite of her ice cream and began her walk home. "I'll see you guys tomorrow!"

Vincent gave her a grin and waved goodbye, but it was Rick's troubled face she remembered on the trip home. What if he was right, and something had happened to Victor…?


	2. Chapter 2

It was a hot spring morning, and Xanthe had managed to get up early enough to wait at the bus stop instead of making a mad dash from her house. She held the right strap of her backpack with her right hand, and with her left operated her cellphone. At the moment, she was texting Victor. She managed to send off "Vic u had better come to school! Rick srsly freaked out yesterday. :(" before the bus arrived, and awaited her reply a little hotheadedly.

But before she could get a reply, the bus screeched and creaked to a stop, and she boarded it, eyes scanning the seats for Victor. He was staring emptily and a little moodily out the window with his weird yellow eyes – they always made Xanthe a little uncomfortable if she thought about it. His black hair was only half-combed, and gave off the (accurate) impression of Victor being a supremely lazy young man.  
He noticed Xanthe only when she sat down next to him and slapped him on the back of the head. "What was the big idea yesterday?! I thought Rick was gonna have a heart attack! He tried to call you, but you wouldn't pick up."

"My phone was dead."

"That's a load of crap. Your phone's never dead," she snapped, pushing his shoulder. "Tell me why you didn't pick up the phone!"

"I didn't wanna talk about it. Dammit, Xanthe, just get off my back already! If he seriously thought something was gonna happen to me, he was being an idiot about it." He crossed his legs and stared out the window again. "Sometimes I just don't know what gets into you. Don't get so mad about this stuff."

"Hey, at least I'm not bothering you about your grades anymore," she replied, slowly drawing her knees to her torso. "But you really shouldn't skip so much school. You're gonna fail and—"

Victor met Xanthe's eyes and glared at her seriously. "Don't act like you can just boss me around, Xanthe. You say it's 'cause you care, but if you really cared, you'd just drop it, okay? So drop it."

She looked down at the floor nervously. "Sorry…I…" she began, but stopped. She furrowed her brows in sudden frustration, and nearly shouted, "YOU should be the one apologizing! I'm just trying to help, all right?! Look, maybe I am getting on your nerves, but I wouldn't be if you would just BEHAVE once and a while! Do you get it?"

He looked away from her and stared out the window again. They spent the better part of a minute in silence before Victor finally spoke up. "We should really change the subject. I mean, like, yeah. KH3D is comin' out or whatever. That's, ah…yeah."

"Oh, oh, yeah, I'm excited about that! I hope Xion comes back. She was one of my favorites. Next to Axel. He's cool, too. But Xionnnn!"

Vincent laughed. "You know Vanitas is the man, though. He's got mad swag. I mean, dang. Mad swag."

"I bet you'd marry Vanitas if you could!"

"Dude, no, that was totally a no homo thing."

"'No homo' is so dumb. Like, heck yes you'd marry Vanitas. You would see him and be like, 'Hot dog, I'm gettin' hitched to Vanitas! Dude's got mad swag.' Then you and him would yolo yourselves into the sunset and start a family."

"That's not what would happen."

"That is so totally what would happen. At the very least, you'd fall madly in love with him. And I could marry Xion, because she also has mad swag."

Vincent laughed and replied, "You'd probably BE Xion before you married her. If we're gonna talk about your crazy fanfiction universe, there's no way you could marry Xion. You're like doppelgangers."

"I don't look anything like Xion."

The bus rolled to a stop in front of the school building, and the two continued their quarrel as they walked to the lobby.  
"You look exactly like Xion. I mean, you have the same face and everything. It's actually a little creepy."

"Here, here, lemme try this," she laughed, then continued, "'Roxas, I'm so glad…I could meet you…bluh!'" She pretended to die, falling on the steps on the way into the lobby.

Victor helped her back up and laughed, "That was so tragic, man. You should win an Oscar."

"I should. I should win every Oscar."

They strolled contentedly into the lobby, at which point Rick sprinted over to the two and hugged Victor so forcefully that it more resembled a tackle than a hug. Victor, of course, fell directly onto Xanthe.

"I'm so glad you're okay!" Rick shouted.

"Tone it down, man!" Victor retorted, shoving Rick away. Xanthe helped herself off the floor and brushed off her uniform skirt extra loudly in order to more seriously express her irritation, though she was hardly irritated so much as amused.

"Dude, Xanthe told me you were worried, but man, she didn't tell me you were THAT worried. Geez," Victor exasperatedly declared, walking over to Vincent. "It's like you haven't seen me for a year or something." Victor took Vincent's math homework from his hands, and Vincent looked on bemusedly as Victor proceeded to copy it without even a word.

"Dude, not okay!" Vincent laughed, snatching back the worksheet. "Ask somebody for help or something, but don't just grab my homework."  
Victor rolled his eyes and laughed in kind. "Yeah, whatever. Here, can I copy your homework?"

"No, you can't copy my homework! Copy Xanthe's homework or something."

Xanthe removed her backpack and produced a beat-up notebook from its depths. "Here, you can look at my notes. Oh, but I wrote something down wrong – don't divide by two pi when you're doing sinusoidal functions. Like, you know, graphing."

"Thanks, Xanthe. I'll get this back to you in math," said Victor. He walked over to where Vincent was sitting and began to do his homework, ignoring Vincent's jokes about him being a slacker. Xanthe took the opportunity to pull Rick aside for a private conversation.

"Hey, you drove today, right?" asked Xanthe.

"Yeah. Obviously, I wasn't on the bus." Rick replied.

"I noticed. Have you noticed something different about Victor?"

"Not really. Did something happen on the bus?"

"I think you might've been right yesterday," she said concernedly. "He seemed really irritable."

"Could just be because it's the morning. He gets in moods sometimes."

"I guess that's true. Hey, do you think I should ask hi – "

Before Xanthe could finish her sentence, the bell rang, and she was forced to leave without an answer.

* * *

Vincent had apparently finished his homework, as far as Xanthe could tell, though he hadn't done a particularly good job on it. Several problems were left blank, and many seemed quite off. She decided not to mention it, and greeted him as if nothing was amiss.

"What's up?" she asked.

"Oh, man, last hour this guy tried to just leave."

"What?"

"He just up and walked out of class. And he got a detention for next Monday after school."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah!" Victor stood up and began to laugh. "He just…" he continued, walking to the door. "He just, like…"

"Victor, you're about to leave class."

"What?"

The bell rang, and Victor sprinted back to his desk, nearly knocking it over in his mad dash. He looked at Xanthe with his standard troublemaker's grin plastered all over his face, though he was visibly embarrassed. It was just at that moment that the teacher entered the room.

"I'm about to check the homework, so get that out," she said. The math teacher turned her back on the class to write "Sinusoidal Functions Homework" on the board, and the students dutifully retrieved their assignments.

"Is she grading for completion?" Victor whispered.

"Yeah, I think so," Xanthe whispered in reply.

"Oh man, this is going on my twitter. Should I hashtag swag or yolo?"

"You should hashtag 'model student.' You know, for sarcasm."

"Shhh, the teacher's coming."

"You had your phone out?!"

"SHHHH!"

The teacher casually walked between their desks, and reviewed the worksheets silently. She took a moment longer on Victor's homework than Xanthe's. When she was finished, she moved to the next row.

"Ok, I posted it," Victor whispered.

"How? The teacher was there!"

"I've got experience."

The class' murmur died down slowly as the teacher stood quietly but seriously at the front of the room. "We are going to spend another day reviewing sinusoidal functions, as last night's homework was rather poor."

"Yesssss!" Victor whispered.

"If there are no questions on the most recent assignment, turn to page – and read –"

Xanthe turned confusedly to Victor, then back to the teacher. There were strange moments when it seemed as if, for no discernible reason, the teacher had disappeared from existence, only to pop back as if nothing had happened. Xanthe furrowed her brows in puzzlement. What was going on?

"Hey, Victor, didn't it look like the teacher just…disappeared? I guess I should get my eyes che—"

"Don't talk about things like that."

The look on his face was serious enough to end the conversation. Xanthe spent some time questioning it, but ended up needing to let it go. After all, she could use some review on sinusoidal functions.


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: Chapter 3 is obviously pretty late, so I'm really sorry about the delay. I had some important things happen to me, and have been busy overall. I even have homework, and summer break isn't over! Anyway, Chapter 3 hasn't been proofread by someone other than me, and might have some extraneous storytelling elements. Also, I forgot the name of a thing. PM me if you have any feedback, please! I don't want to upload something TOO bad._

* * *

A Shadow lunged at Xion, and she easily defeated it with one effortless swing of her Keyblade. There wasn't time to engage in a trivial fight with some weak Heartless, and she was acutely aware of that. She forced herself to sprint faster through the quiet afternoon streets of Twilight Town, and suddenly leapt as high as she could. It was no use – she'd have to try a different tactic to get that Emblem. Frustrated, she stomped her foot before sprinting off in the opposite direction.

Agility tests were never her strong suit, but she was determined to do well this time around. She knew Saïx was judging her harshly, and she wasn't about to give him something else to nitpick over. With the most powerful push she was able to muster, she flung herself from the ledge and grabbed the Emblem. The mission was finally over, and Xion had exceeded requirements. Once the token was in her hand, Xion couldn't help but grin at her success and wake up.

It was six in the morning, and Xanthe was not in the best of moods. She made a displeased gurgle of some sort and pushed her alarm clock on the floor. Waking up at such a ridiculous hour was never easy for her, though she did it every day. She sat up and swung her legs out so that they dangled at the edge of the bed. Her unfinished math homework lay crumpled on the floor.

Oh, her unfinished math homework. That was not good at all. Xanthe scrambled out of bed, panicking all the while, and began to prepare her breakfast. Halfway through, she realized she wasn't dressed, and rushed back to her room. She tossed her summer pajamas on an ever-growing pile of laundry and exchanged them for the school's uniform. She barely managed to tuck her white dress shirt into her navy blue skirt before she smelled the food cooking – or more accurately, burning.

"Dammit!"

Xanthe grabbed her math homework and flew into the kitchen, nearly tripping on a flower-shaped rug placed on the tile by her mother. Luckily, she only slid into the counter and bumped her hip. She hurried, albeit more carefully this time, to her breakfast in order to assess the damages. The toast had popped up on time, but her eggs were a little burnt. To her relief, though, they still appeared edible. She grabbed a plate and placed an egg on each slice of toast, eating one and leaving the other to sit.

Her math homework still lay crumpled on the table, and she carefully unfolded it before realizing that she was viewing the backside of the worksheet. The assignment was complete. She buried her face in her hands and began to laugh.

* * *

"Rick, you'll never BELIEVE what happened this morning!" Xanthe sighed, grinning. She plopped her backpack down next to Rick and practically fell into the open seat. Victor was in the bench across the aisle, but he was asleep.

"What? Was it good?"

"No, but it was FUNNY, oh my god. I got up and I saw my math on the floor and I was like 'CRAP I DIDN'T DO IT' so I went and started to make breakfast really quick so I could finish it, but then I was still in pajamas so I had to change. So I did that, but then my food started burning! So I ran back into the kitchen but I ended up getting caught on Mom's stupid rug and I flew across the room like, PYOOO!" She held out her arms and pantomimed flying as if she were a superhero while Rick laughed. "I did end up burning breakfast, but it was still tolerable."

"Did you end up finishing your work?"

"That's the thing. Turns out I was looking at the back of my worksheet, and it was done all along."

"Seriously?!" He grabbed her shoulders. "For real? Oh my god."

"For real."

"If it makes you feel any better, my morning was kinda ridiculous too. I had this weird dream that I had these Moon Shoes like in those really old commercials, except they were super big, and illegal or something? So the army was after me or whatever because of…" He paused for a moment to laugh, then continued. "Because of these Moon Shoes. But when I woke up, I got all confused, right? And I was still convinced that it was real, and I actually, legitimately said to my mom, 'No, they're gonna find me!' And she was all, 'Who?' and I was like, 'THE GOVERNMENT.' My mom thought I was on drugs until I explained, oh my god."

Xanthe snorted and had to cover her mouth. "Moon Shoes?"

"The weird thing is, I had Moon Shoes when I was a kid, and they suck."

She shook her head and turned to tuck in part of her shirt that had come loose before remembering her dream. "Oh, almost forgot, I had kind of a weird dream too. I dreamed I was Xion and I was stuck doing the thing where you get all the little Organization signs, except I was Xion so I had to move around for real. It was so weird."

"What, were you playing Days before bed or something?" Rick said, and subsequently laughed at his comment. "Hey, you know, you could probably pass as Xion pretty well."

"Victor told me that too, oh my god."

"I could probably be Roxas, come to think of it. I mean, I'm blond!"

"Being blond doesn't make you Roxas, though. You'd have to be all spiky, and also throw fits at everything everyone does."

"He does not throw fits at everything everyone does!" Rick said.

Xanthe snorted. "You're becoming a better Roxas already!"

"HEY!"

* * *

It was almost time for lunch, but Xanthe wasn't annoyed with the class standing between her and food, as was usual. She was excited, because she would finally have a partner she knew in literature. On her way to class, she thought she'd swing by Rick's locker to say hello.

"Xion, what's up!"

"Nothing mu—hey, did you just call me Xion? Did you legit forget my name?"

Rick opened his mouth to form a response, but laughed instead. "X-Xanthe…oh my god! Oh my god…I'm really sorry!"

"I guess I'll have to call you Roxas from now on!" she playfully retorted. He smiled at her in reply.

"Oh, I gotta get to class! I should probably let you get your stuff. I'll see you at lunch!"

Still smiling from her humorous encounter with Rick, she entered class and sat next to Vincent, who grinned and elbowed her in the shoulder playfully.

"Partners! Can you believe it? I'm so glad we got to pick this time!" said Vincent.

Xanthe shook her head. "No, I can hardly believe it." Her smile faded momentarily as she remembered yesterday's incident with Victor. As the bell rang, Xanthe leaned over close to Vincent's ear.

"Victor was acting…weird in math. I…the teacher seemed blurry or something, so I mentioned that I should get my eyes checked to him, and he snapped at me."

Vincent thought about it for a moment, perplexed. When he had apparently reached a conclusion, he smiled. "I don't think you should worry about it. You know how Victor can be." He shook his head. "Do you want me to ask him to cut it out? I know he may not seem like it, but…" Vincent trailed off momentarily. "He really cares about all of us. I just feel like he doesn't…like I understand his feelings best."

Xanthe smiled back. "Thanks, Vincent. I think I'll be fine talking with him, though."

"All right, I'm done taking roll." announced their portly English teacher. "As you know, the class will be starting a new research project, so we'll be in the library."

"As you know," Xanthe whispered mockingly to Vincent, "we'll be in the library, so nobody will actually work on the research project at all, but I think you will because I'm dumb." Vincent smiled softly and rolled his eyes at her.

* * *

Vincent and Xanthe squirmed through the small crowd of literature students at the library door and rushed to computer 5, their computer of choice. It wasn't that it ran exceptionally well, but it was the most difficult to see from their teacher's usual spot, which made it easier to play stupid flash games.

"Load up the one with the sled guy." Vincent urged.

"The sled guy?"

"Where you draw the hill and he goes down it!"

"Oh, that one."

"Wait, does this computer have the game where those weird red and blue rubber guys fight each other in the big room?"

"No, they found it and blocked that one from the computers."

"Ok, then get the sled one."

* * *

Xanthe loaded the game while Vincent waited intently, both occasionally giggling loudly. The library was quiet, but by no means silent, though they were still the loudest two.

Mr. Wise, the librarian, kept an eye on Xanthe and Vincent quietly and seriously, his brows furrowed. Though normally seeing students carefree and content made him fondly remember his own childhood, this school was much different than the schools of his hometown. It was upsetting to him, really.

Though it was obvious to him that their friendship couldn't last, they had no idea. To think that it would all end so soon for them – their carefree days of homework and procrastination, ice cream, pranks, even teenage drama – he knew they would miss it all so much in the moments they had left. But it was inevitable. All children must grow up eventually.

They glanced over and Xanthe made eye contact with him before turning back around and whispering something to Vincent. The two promptly opened a random encyclopedia article and giggled. He couldn't help but smile. They believed themselves so clever…


End file.
